Articles and evidence-based blog posts about sports science, nutrition, exercise, and general health.

Everything You Need to Know About Using Wellness Questionnaires in Sport

Athlete self-report measures (ASRM) can be a relatively simple and inexpensive means for determining an athlete’s training load and his or her subsequent responses to that training [20]. In fact, using ASRM, such as wellness questionnaires, is the most common method for monitoring athlete fatigue and recovery in high performance sport in New Zealand and Australia [28]. And for good reason, as we will soon discover.

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Heart Rate Recovery: An Underutilized Metric for Identifying Fitness and Fatigue in Athletes

Evaluating athlete preparedness for competition demands, and understanding how prescribed training affects fitness and fatigue parameters, is of utmost importance for applied sport professionals. Routinely assessing heart rate recovery can provide pragmatic, cost-effective insights for these evaluations.

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Body Composition in Sport: Ultrasound

Monitoring body composition in athletes is beneficial for a multitude of reasons. Although ultrasound (US) is not typically known for its potential to assess body composition, this technique may be a diamond in the rough for body composition assessment in athletes and sport. How it works, its popularity among sport professionals, and common sources and margin of error are reviewed in this article.

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Body Composition in Sport: BOD POD and Underwater Weighing

Monitoring body composition in athletes is beneficial for a multitude of reasons. Air displacement plethsymography (ADP; BOD POD is the most common device) and underwater weighing (UWW) are two highly regarded methods for body composition assessment. How ADP and UWW work, their popularity among sport professionals, and common sources and margin of error are reviewed in this article.

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When and How to Implement Resistance Training in Youth

Athlete or not, embarking on a resistance training program is not something that should just happen with a snap of the fingers. The integration of resistance training, in order to optimize youth physical development, requires thought. In this article, I review the research on how and when to integrate resistance training into the lives of children, as well as debunk the myth that resistance training destroys growth plates and stunts growth.

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Early Sport Specialization Part 6: How Organized Youth Sport Affects Family Dynamics

The importance of physical activity in youth cannot be overstated. The myriad of health benefits that come along with physical activity, both mental and physical, are well-documented [1-10]. These benefits include improved self-efficacy, life satisfaction, cardiovascular fitness, bone health and strength, body composition, and improved cognitive and mental health [1-10].

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Early Sport Specialization Part 5: Sport Volume Recommendations for Youth Athletes

The combination of sport specialization and high-volume training has been associated with a high rate of overuse injuries in youth athletes. Because of this, multiple medical and professional organizations have recently released position statements warning against specialization and have given recommendations for safe sport participation in youth [1-5].

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Off-Ice Contributors to On-Ice Success: An In-Depth Review of the Research

What does a game look like for the typical NHL positional player? It’s pretty easy to figure out… just do some simple math on the stats from the NHL website. The typical position player will have 20-35 shifts/game, each lasting 60-90 seconds in duration. This appears simple, on the surface, but let’s take a deeper look.

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